i

through time-lapse, rivers twist like worms to lure

a catch, procured up-tide of futures brooked

mouths open —look!— in lust-spawned fury, hooked

intent by crook of dawn to leap ashore

in writhing force, pursuing dusk’s endure

and swim no more, thus, cursèd, men forsook
ii

one river watched them scrabble up its banks

dispersed in frantic, atavistic cull

from minuscule beginnings, mud-dripped, dull

to sift through sullied genes and thin their ranks

while proving blank the canvassed air, give thanks

where, trinkets dangled, pressed the living skulls
iii

soon, buildings flanked the river, tall and proud

a mingled, crowded smother, curling true

behold! what views, we said, floor thirty-two

besotted, truant, leases forged in cloud

we sped, empowered, grand, selection cowed

through empty boundaries, swelled to ponds anew
iv

its temples empty, still the river flows

no cult on show, just husks of worship spent

old condos, penthouse must, bare, stripped of rent

cast ghosts in bent despair through passing motion

fools’ tinctured, gold-dripped bloodlines, new-born oceans

man chortles faux where ripples blind are sent